A Harmony of the Spirits - Translation and the Language of Community in Early Pennsylvania (Paperback)

In early Pennsylvania, translation served as a utopian tool creating harmony across linguistic, religious, and ethnic differences. Patrick Erben challenges the long-standing historical myth--first promulgated by Benjamin Franklin--that language diversity posed a threat to communal coherence. He deftly traces the pansophist and Neoplatonist philosophies of European reformers that informed the radical English and German Protestants who founded the ""holy experiment."" Their belief in hidden yet persistent links between human language and the word of God impelled their vision of a common spiritual idiom. Translation became the search for underlying correspondences between diverse human expressions of the divine and served as a model for reconciliation and inclusiveness. Drawing on German and English archival sources, Erben examines iconic translations that engendered community in colonial Pennsylvania, including William Penn's translingual promotional literature, Francis Daniel Pastorius's multilingual poetics, Ephrata's ""angelic"" singing and transcendent calligraphy, the Moravians' polyglot missions, and the common language of suffering for peace among Quakers, Pietists, and Mennonites. By revealing a mystical quest for unity, Erben presents a compelling counternarrative to monolingualism and Enlightenment empiricism in eighteenth-century America.

General

Imprint:	The University of North Carolina Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
Release date:	December 2016
Authors:	Patrick M. Erben
Dimensions:	235 x 155 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	352
ISBN-13:	978-1-4696-3346-6
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Palaeography Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Historical & comparative linguistics > General Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Imperialism Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Other Protestant & Nonconformist Churches > General Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Other Protestant & Nonconformist Churches > General Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Other Protestant & Nonconformist Churches Promotions
LSN:	1-4696-3346-9
Barcode:	9781469633466

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